Looking for the perfect holiday gift idea? Nothing beats a good cookbook. Here’s a selection that celebrates Canada’s awesome talent, and books so good, you should consider ordering a copy for yourself, too!

Chef Ned Bell

LURE: Canada is host to a large army of dedicated, talented, principled chefs who incorporate their food ideology into their dishes in order to define – and help protect – the nation’s food landscape. One chef whose message is ringing clearly across the land is BC’s award-winning Ned Bell, a kind and thoughtful man with the wiry energy of a west-coast fisherman and a boundless love for our waters.

This popular Canadian activist and culinary influencer is fast becoming the face of sustainable seafood in this country, a food ambassador involved in various organizations as well as having founded Chefs for Oceans to raise awareness and to advocate for responsible seafood choices from our oceans, lakes and rivers. He has biked 8,700 km across Canada and has hosted dozens of events featuring some of the finest chefs in the country in order to raise awareness for sustainable seafood. Just recently he was awarded the 2017 Seafood Champion for Advocacy by SeaWeb Seafood. A father of three sons, his dedication is inspiring as is his message: We must become part of the solution so that future generations can enjoy what we enjoy today.

Bell’s excellent new cookbook, Lure, written with Valerie Howes, continues the conversation in a stunning read that boasts 80 simple and delicious recipes with 40 different sustainable seafood choices. “It’s simple,” says Bell. “As an excellent source of protein, sustainable seafood can be the real fast food in our homes…Lure will help you do that.” The book is in a way a loving extension of his biking journey across Canada, and it arrives just in time for the holidays. Timing is perfect – November is Ocean Wise Seafood Month, a time to think about the seafood we eat, and the sustainable choices we make.

– LURE – Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coat; (Figure.1 Publishing); #LureCookbook. For more information on Ned Bell and Chefs for Oceans visit chefsforoceans.com

– HOW TO CAKE IT (HarperCollins;)

HOW TO CAKE IT: People tend to throw adjectives around like rice at a wedding when describing cake art (of the Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes variety, not to mention food competition shows.)

And then you have Yolanda Gampp – mind-blowing doesn’t begin to define the astonishing works of delicious art this YouTube channel star (her How To Cake it is one of the most hugely successful, Webby Award winning shows online, viewed by more than seven million enthusiasts from around the world.) What makes Yolanda even more amazing is that – although she graduated from chef’s school, she is self-taught who started out baking novelty cakes in her mother’s kitchen, drawing inspiration from her father, who worked as a baker.

Gampp, who lives in Toronto with her husband, “Mr. Cake,” and her young son, has been featured on The Today Show, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan and more, and she’s been a guest judge on popular Food Network shows such as Cake Wars and Sugar Showdown. Anyone who has spent even a moment watching her How To Cake on Youtube is immediately drawn in – she’s fun and her work is fascinating. Her detail is exquisite – truly sleight-of-hand that leaves one wondering – how does she do it? Well, if you want to know, pick up a copy of her new book, How To Cake It (HarperCollins), a bold, colourful book with great detail and amazing coverage on 21 show-stopping cakes including her famous watermelon cake and an absolute stunner of a Fried Chicken and Waffles cake. It truly is food porn at its sweetest!

COOKING WITH THE WOLFMAN: Award-winning chef David Wolfman – a member of the Xaxli’p First Nation in BC – has been at the helm of teaching Indigenous food traditions for decades. Classically trained, and a culinary arts professor at Ontario’s George Brown culinary institute, not to mention hosting his own TV series – Cooking With The Wolfman – he is also an internationally recognized expert in wild game and traditional cuisines. Many refer to him as the Godfather of Indigenous Cuisine, in fact, his passion has always been in teaching aboriginal traditions. And he does so with expert flair and beauty in a glorious new cookbook, Cooking With The Wolfman, co-authored with Marlene Finn, (a Metis whose background includes director of the National Aboriginal and Achievement Awards and former VP of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.) Together, the two have created a stunning book that covers everything from origins of heritage foods to creating unique recipes using classical European cooking techniques. Chef Wolfman refers to his cooking as Indigenous Fusion – “foods that Indigenous peoples traditionally ate, combined with foods, flavours and cooking techniques of other lands and peoples.” The recipes include Elk Carpaccio on Greens, Iroquois Poutine with Cayenne Hominy and Mountain Goat barley soup, to name just a few in book brimming with colour and detail, and reverence for the foods of our nation.

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